Tag Archives: Beta

Beat-Play just announced their official public Beta launch. We’re here today with Beat-Play’s founder and CEO, Dante Cullari, to tell us some more about the company.

Dante, what is the goal of Beat-Play?

Beat-Play’s aim is to provide an optimized digital infrastructure to the music industry as a whole. We want our tools to encompass a full spectrum of opportunities for artists and fans to create, promote, distribute, monetize, organize and listen to music. We understand that there is no one perfect solution that will work for everybody, so our goal is really to provide a number of options for each of the different components of the music industry I just mentioned. All of this is now made significantly easier with digital, online and social technologies, and we feel that centralizing these solutions by defragmenting music into one rich community will also be beneficial for everyone. We want to help create the foundation for a long lasting, sustainable and prosperous world music industry online, as we move forward into the future.

What does Beat-Play offer artists and fans right now?

Our first and current product addresses promotion and distribution for artists (or discovery and sharing for fans), organization and playback. Right now, Beat-Play is a streaming player that promotes music to fans with something we call Bump, which is a search based on tags, or keywords that the user enters. Listeners can use Moods, Locations, Artist Names, Genres, Activities or really almost anything, to describe the music that they want to hear. Beat-Play then creates a custom playlist for the listener consisting of both music and videos (via Souncloud, Youtube and Beat-Play itself) based on matches to the user’s tags. These playlists are updated in real time as music is continually added to the service and tagged. Fans can then save the music that they find and like into playlists, and share these playlists with their friends through Facebook.

While the current product currently offers limited functionality, our next product will focus on adding in new options, as well as improving current ones.

What are you working on for the future?

Our next product will address several issues. We’re working on mobile to improve access. The next product will also be socially integrated which again will aid in promotion and distribution, or sharing and discovery, and we hope to also include some more options for user customization. We want to make organizing and managing your listening experience better, with more custom presets, which again, will help in discovery and also fan retention.

The next big step for us then is really artist monetization. As mentioned before, we realize that one option will not be sufficient for every artist, so we’re planning on introducing things like music and merch stores, ticketing and show booking, commercial music license stores or auctions, and even advertising opportunities.

Advertising is actually something I want to briefly touch on – To quote the Facebook movie, “Advertising isn’t cool.” In the movie that’s really all they needed to say about it before just turning their backs on it. I feel that this is an attitude that most companies have towards advertising, but nobody really wants to be the one to challenge it. On Beat-Play, we’ve come up with a way around this.

First of all, artists on Beat-Play will own their own ad space, and they can leverage their statistics on Beat-Play and on Facebook to negotiate better rates with sponsors. As far as the ads themselves, you wont see annoying and interruptive commercials, or huge flashy banners. Our ads will instead be designed to actually add to the listener’s experience by offering pieces of bonus content relevant to the artist or the music itself. It could be a music video, a cool app, or even a video game. If it’s Skrillex, maybe it’s a Dj app. If it’s Slightly Stoopid, maybe it’s a surfing game you can play while listening to the music. Also, the listeners won’t be distracted by these ads. On the player itself we’ll use something that we call postage stamp ads, because they’re just about the size of a postage stamp. If the user doesn’t want to engage with the ads, they don’t have to, and they won’t be interrupted by them. For the people who do choose to engage with the ads, they’ll get some additional content that they couldn’t have gotten otherwise, creating incentive to actually share ad content. This provides a great revenue stream to the artists, allows the fans to continue to listen to their favorite music for free potentially, and also provides some great cred for the sponsors involved. Everybody really wins, and this even has some great potential to curb piracy for artists. These are the kinds of solutions that we’re looking forward to making available to the music industry in the near future, using digital technologies to make it happen.

How can people help?

Get on board now. It’s only going to get better, and for artists especially, it’s a good idea to start gaining their fan-base here so they can get their statistics up. Even if they’re not on Beat-Play though, building Facebook statistics will still help them out, and Beat-Play could still help promote an artist if their music is on Soundcloud, Youtube or Jamendo right now. So not being on Beat-Play doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t still benefit from it, but it’s a good idea to get on there now as we’ll really be able to offer the fans a better experience with their music on Beat-Play if they do. It’s completely free, so there’s nothing lost by trying it, and for fans right now we really offer some great discovery and organization options, along with unlimited, uninterrupted free streaming. Mobile is obviously something we’re really excited about pushing out next.

As we continue to grow, we will really need help from the artists and fans to support and build this community. We need artists to upload their music and tell their friends and their fans. We also need artists to work together in helping to support and promote each other by tagging fellow artists in their own songs. Most of all though, we need artists and fans to really take ownership of this community, and take advantage of the free options we’re putting out there. This really does need to be a team effort, and I think we have the strength and the ability as indie artists to build something huge, so that we can have the kind of impact that we need in order to benefit all of the incredibly talented independent artists out there that are struggling right now, and also to impact the fans that are missing out on a lot of great music because of it. We’ve had a great response from artists so far, and we’re confident that these solutions will bring some big changes to the way the music industry operates in the coming years.

You can go to Beatplay.com right now to sign up, and you’ll be asked to login with your Facebook account. We don’t auto-post to anybody’s walls, or publish any user information, not even on the Beat-Play player itself right now, so your account will still be completely secure.

If you have issues or suggestions, please contact us! We are still in beta so we understand there’s a lot of room for us to grow, but we’re working really hard with our small team to keep up with the demand for more features. The player is best used with Firefox right now also. Again, we really appreciate the support of the independent music community that we’re getting, from both artists and fans, and we’re extremely excited to get to the next level!

Dante, thank you so much for the interview.

Absolutely, Thank you!

To get you started, here are some awesome playlists courtesy of the Beat-Play team – over 6 hours of great tunes:

I’d like to introduce to you the 1st entry of a new experiment we are proud to be starting.

You may have noticed this blog’s name has changed to The Beat-Play Experiment. This blog, in addition to everything it has represented already, will be dedicated to telling the story of Beat-Play, as it progresses. For more information on what Beat-Play is, go here.

The experiment is almost like a professional baby book for Beat-Play, keeping log routinely of internal problems, successes, plans, events, breakthroughs, overall progress, and looking to the readers for their input. We want to share this journey with our users.

It will also be used in an effort to stay completely transparent, and keep everyone who supports the Beat-Play/Independent movement on the same page as the people running the show. Feedback from posts will be a huge asset to us, and the community, moving forward.

I’ll start off by giving you an update of our status up to this point, and by introducing everyone involved.

First, my name is Dante Cullari and I am the Founder and President of Beat-Play, LLC. I am an independent artist; a lyricist, and a producer. After researching and realizing that there were no solid alternatives for indie artists to promote and distribute their music, without losing their rights to a label, I decided to create my own alternative where artists could maintain full control over their careers, including pricing, song selection, promotion methods, merchandise, ect, and they could do it all online from their home.

I am Beat-Play’s architect. I don’t do any coding myself, though I have a little experience doing it. I however, design the functionality and the interconnectedness of the site, and guide the user experience. I have a very clear vision of what’s best for independent artists, and I do my best to translate it to everyone around me. Every decision I make for Beat-Play has a good reason behind it, and when making decisions, I am always thinking about what’s best from the user’s perspective.

It’s been 3 years since I had this dream, and now, it’s just a few short months from launching. We have the designs done, and the back-end mostly done. Now we are just waiting while the two are being merged together into one functionally incredible tool for artists. If you want to learn more about what our beta version will include, you can check out the Beat-Play Beta Overview.

I’d like to now introduce everyone else responsible for making Beat-Play become a reality, and a sustainable platform for independent artists to share, promote and earn money from their music.

First and foremost, we have my Mom, Kathi Cullari. She is the CEO of Cullari Communications Group, a public relations company based out of Pa, and she is the VP of Beat-Play. She is an incredibly innovative and smart woman, and she has taught me almost everything I know about business. Everyone that works for her, with the exception of 1 person, is a female, and they all work from their homes. She has people in almost every state. Though she is located in Pa, she has created a network of people all throughout the country, allowing her business to reach much farther. She is my primary investor in Beat-Play, (and she also happens to have an AMAZING voice). She is where I get my love of music, and she really believes in this cause. I am so lucky to have her. Not too many people would have so much faith in their 21 year old son, but she’s smart, and I get it from her.

The Team:

Boris Mosesyan

Boris is our Creative Director. I’ve been good friends with Boris since High School, when he would show me the beats he was making and we would make songs together. He doesn’t make beats so much anymore, but he does a LOT of design work for us. He is responsible for our Myspace page, our Blog Header, our T-shirts, our Twitter page, our forums, a bunch of Beat-Play backgrounds, and a lot more. He does awesome work, with a lot of passion, and he’s a character. He never fails to make you laugh.

Dave Botero

Dave has had many titles. Among them are director of business development, account executive, media coordinator, national sales assistant, HMFIC (head motherfucker in charge) and he now he calls himself the Sous Chef of Beat-Play. I met Dave when he was at a different company and he came to me with some of the most ridiculous, and creative marketing ideas I had ever heard. We developed and maintained a relationship despite us not using his company anymore. Then about a year later Dave and I started working together again. This time Dave was the HMFIC of his own company, Livid. I was Livid’s biggest client and eventually I just had to snag Dave all to myself. He is an incredibly creative and connected individual and we’re lucky to have his expertise on this team.

Mark Valente

Mark is our Online Marketing Director. I actually went to high school with Mark as well. We’ve been friends for a very long time, and both share a hunger for knowledge that drives us to learn about anything and everything we feel can make a difference in our lives, and the world. He is the social butterfly of the group, reaching out on hundreds of social networks and blogs to spread the message of better alternatives for indie artists. He is our online ambassador, and if you found this blog through another website, it’s probably because of him. He’s also a pretty dirty drummer!

Jimmy Iles

Jimmy is our Director of Operations. He has a strong background in sales, having worked for a major food wholesaler for a number of years before Beat-Play. Now he is the one responsible for making sure the rest of us don’t fall off a cliff. I have actually known Jimmy for a long time. He is my mom’s best friend’s son. He is an amazingly diligent and organized person to work with, and he is also a great guy to hang out with. He’s based in Colorado, right outside of Denver, while the rest of the team is in Harrisburg, Pa for the time being. Jimmy is our connection to the real world at times, but even he’s a bit of a dreamer, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. He is a crucial asset to our team.

Dan Lineaweaver is the President of Skyward Thought, the development team working to make Beat-Play into a reality. Dan is also a drummer in a metal band. He really believes in this project and understands it better than most people I know. He is the best possible guy I could have ever hoped to build Beat-Play. The name of his company exemplifies his process. He was one of the first people on board with Beat-Play, and he has proven to be an amazing addition, throughout the whole journey. He’ll be adding more info about his company here in the future.

I make it a point to surround myself with geniuses. Everyone on the team operates at a higher level. We think big, and act. There is nothing we believe we can’t do. That is why for us, solving every single problem associated with the music industry today is simply another goal to be reached, and we are relentless. We feel like we will make major contributions to the welfare of independent music as a whole, and we will continue refining our methods as long as we are here.

We are getting EXTREMELY excited for the launch of Beat-Play into beta, which hopefully will be out of the lawyer’s hands and online by May. This is a big moment in time for independent artists. Stayed tuned for another entry shortly.

We will soon be releasing the Beat-Play beta version to independent artists and fans everywhere. They will be among the first to EVER use this revolutionary new technology designed to completely break independent artists free from the plagues of the current music industry. The beta will include the following:

The Audio Component Auction –

This tool is designed to provide a fair and efficient way for artists to sell licenses of their work without paying for anything upfront. The auction creates an environment that will reveal the true value of the music, and will also be competitive. This makes the best situation for both artists and consumers. Here, artists will be able to sell instrumentals, lyrics, sheet music, sound effects, soundtracks, jingles, rights, and much more.

The Music Social Network –

Beat-Play allows users to have their own profile and control panel to keep track of all of their favorite music and share it with friends. Beat-Play will soon become the ultimate music social network with the addition of the viral radio, where you will follow other users with similar tastes in music…friends, favorite band members, ect… and anything they like enough to playlist, will automatically get sent to your radio, at random, or by user control. If you like the music enough to playlist it, it automatically gets sent to anybody following you. This creates a situation where if the music is good, it will spread extremely fast through a network of playlists all connected by users with common interests.

The 3D Music Store –

This section intends to recreate the experience of browsing through a real music store. Users will be able to choose from a selection of avatars to navigate around within this 3D virtual store, full of racks of music able to be previewed and purchased effortlessly.

Credit System –

Beat-Play will use a currency system of credits, which can be added to a user’s account using a credit or debit card. Users cannot purchase anything without adding credits to their account. This is to save users on transaction fees that Beat-Play would have to charge every time a user makes a purchase with their card. Once the credits are transferred into an account, the user can make purchases without entering any additional information or getting extra charges per each of their purchases. Just another way Beat-Play saves the users money.

Beat-Play Beta Promotions to Get Involved In:

Vibe-rater Widget –

The Vibe-rater is a widget consisting of a selection of “vibes” which are actually playlists related to a particular mood or vibe. A user will select their vibe and each song in that playlist will then be displayed and can be rated, with links back to the artist’s information. The Widget is viral and embeddable on many different social networks and blogs. The Vibe-rater will not exclude any genres and can therefore be very effective at introducing people to types of music that they don’t normally listen to. It will also be linked to a user’s Beat-Play profile. The music selected for the Vibe-rater playlists will be among the best on Beat-Play, and it will be rotated monthly.

To start, the music will be selected by a group within the Beat-Play team, but in the future, amendments will be made to let the users decide what music goes best with each vibe, and we will also accept suggestions for new vibes. The Vibe-rater will undergo many additions and enhancements, as Beat-Play does the same, such as getting users engaged and involved in sharing the widget between friends and giving them incentive to do so using things like personalized “vibes.”

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